After years of research, Steve Mitchell and John Poulter hypothesise that the Raw Dykes – a double-banked ditch located 2km south of Leicester’s Roman public baths – is a remnant of a navigable Roman canal. Their full results were recently published in Itinera (the journal of the Roman Roads Research…
More still to uncover at Pompeii While investigations at Pompeii have been ongoing for centuries, much of the site remains unexplored, and new excavations have recently begun in one such previously unexamined section. This new project aims to uncover an area of around 3,200m2 – roughly the size of a…
The bacteria that caused the Justinian Plague in the 6th century AD and the Black Death in the 14th century AD – Yersinia pestis – has recently been identified in three individuals from two Bronze Age sites in Britain. While a Late Neolithic and Bronze Age (LNBA) lineage of Y.…
Recent excavations within the cloister of Exeter Cathedral have unearthed significant structures and artefacts spanning the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval periods, including traces of a legionary fortress. The project has been carried out by AC Archaeology, led by Simon Hughes and Libby Armstrong. The earliest finds they uncovered reveal glimpses…
A large piece of oak, found in Boxford, Berkshire in 2019 and dated to the late Mesolithic period, has been identified as the oldest decoratively carved wood currently known from Britain. The wood was discovered in a layer of peat approximately 1.5m below the surface, in a trench dug for…
Excavations on a farm in Talsarn, Ceredigion, have found evidence for late Mesolithic and late Neolithic activity, helping illuminate a period that has been little explored in this region of Wales. The project at Talsarn began in 2019, when a mysterious mound was investigated by students from the University of…
In June 2017, contractors digging an electricity service trench, just inland from Longis Bay in Alderney, began to find human bones. Archaeologists from Guernsey quickly flew up to investigate, and so began six (COVID-19-interrupted) years of research into the biggest, and best-preserved, Iron Age and Gallo-Roman site in the Channel…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums…
Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Pañamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals of its pillared hall. This building, which archaeologists believe may have been the most important at the site, was partially excavated in 2010, and has more…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums…
Strands of human hair from the Bronze Age burial and cult-cave of Es Cà rritx in Menorca have been analysed, providing the first direct evidence of ancient drug-use in Europe. Around 1450 BC, Menorca’s inhabitants started to use natural caves as funerary structures. Among them was Es Cà rritx, which had already…
A Dutch-Italian team has discovered a new tomb at Saqqara, belonging to a man named Panehsy who was associated with the Temple of Amun in the early part of the Ramesside Period. The tomb is in the form of a small temple measuring 13 by 8 metres, with a monumental…
More than 2,000 mummified rams’ heads have been discovered by an American Mission excavating near to the Ramesses II temple at Abydos, inside a newly discovered storage room in the northern area of the temple. Alongside the rams’ heads, the team found the mummified remains of other animals, including sheep,…
The Egyptian archaeological mission working at the Meir archaeological site in el-Quseyya (Asyut Governorate) has uncovered a building dating to the Byzantine era. The structure consisted of a courtyard with a number of rooms, storage spaces, and a fireplace. The walls of one of the rooms were decorated with prayers…
A beautifully painted zodiac ceiling has been revealed at the Temple of Esna following cleaning and restoration work by a German-Egyptian team. The colourful scenes, carved on the ceiling of the Roman Period columned hall, have not previously been published, as they were not clearly visible under layers of dirt,…
The ancient East Delta city of Pithom mentioned in the Bible was an important hub for international trade according to new discoveries made at Tell el-Maskhuta (Ismailia Province). The Italian-Egyptian mission excavating there has uncovered a large collection of pottery vessels and other items of trade dating to the Late…
The joint German-Egyptian mission at Heliopolis, excavating the area surrounding the Obelisk Open-air Museum, has discovered a series of stone fragments from statues depicting Ramesses II, Ramesses IX, Horemheb, and Psamtek II. The finds include heads belonging to sphinxes that were originally placed near the front gates and obelisks of…
German researchers analysing 12 severed hands that were discovered at Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) in 2011 have published their findings, suggesting that the amputations were part of a ritual, rather than a punishment for crime. The hands, dating to about 1500 BC, were found in shallow pits dug outside the walls…
Researchers at the British Museum have used a new technology called neutron tomography to reveal the contents of six votive animal coffins, made of copper alloy, without having to open them. The technique involved sending beams of neutrons through each object to create a 2D or 3D image of the…
Also recently declared as treasure in Wales was a hoard of Roman coins, found between 2014 and 2022…